


Spica

by orphan_account



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Romance, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 16:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12657585
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Umi's wondering what makes dating different than friendship because not much has changed since she and Maki started dating.





	Spica

What is the difference between dating and friendship?

That question has been on Umi’s mind for the past week-and-a-half, and, even after hours of thinking about it, she has not come up with an answer. She and Maki haven’t made any changes to their routine.

_Not to mention that we haven’t k-kissed yet..._

She glances up at Maki, who is absentmindedly staring at Umi, as if Maki rests her eyes by looking at her girlfriend. The two flinch in their respective seats and avert their gazes with heat growing on their faces, but that is the norm in recent times. Becoming an item didn’t change the tacit embarrassment they shared when with the other members of μ’s.

Yes, they are in the clubroom, sitting at the table with seven other girls and not participating in conversation. There is a lull in their idle chat at the moment, which Honoka interrupts with a spontaneous “oh.”

“Anyone wanna go to karaoke later?” Honoka asks, beaming as she tries to convince the other members to tag along. Eli and Nozomi have student council duties, Rin and Hanayo have something planned already, Kotori has costumes to sew, and the newly-formed couple of Umi and Maki have a song to write. Honoka sighs as everyone rejects her offer.

“If you insist, the great Nico Nii will go.” Umi looks over at Nico, who snickers to the side. “If it’s just Honoka, Nico won’t lose, hehehe…”

“Ehhhh, it’s just Nico-chan and me?” The girls watch as Honoka twiddles her index fingers. “Isn’t that like a d-d-date?”

“Are you dating?” Eli asks.

“No,” Honoka says.

“Then it’s not a date. Unless you both want it to be~” Eli winks at the pair as they both shake their heads. Umi bursts out of her seat and slams her hands on the table, not realizing how much noise she makes. “U-Umi?” She looks around and sees everyone looking up at her with expressions of surprise; only then she realizes what she just did.

“I’m going to the music room.” She grabs her bag and, halfway out the door, pauses and looks at Maki. She stands there until Maki grabs her own belongings and follows Umi. There are a couple of giggles from inside the clubroom, but Umi doesn’t care.

She has found her answer.

_How could I be so blind? It’s practically in the word “dating.” Dates… No, not the fruit, but they might be just as sweet… Ahem, now is not the time for wordplay, but the time for action._

As all those thoughts dance inside her head to some frantic mess of a beat, Umi looks over at Maki who is twirling her hair as she walks. Now Umi has a new question.

How does she ask Maki?

Umi switches her gaze between the hallway she is walking through and Maki, tracing the redhead’s figure with her eyes as if she’s drawing a detailed picture. When they arrive at the music room, Umi takes her eyes off Maki and moves them onto a different canvas: her notebook. As Maki strings a melody together out of singular notes and chords, Umi does the same with words and phrases, sometimes synchronizing her pen with Maki’s piano.

“Hey, Umi,” Maki says. “Can you grab my phone?”

“Sure,” Umi says. She watches Maki pore over sheet music on the piano bench, then looks over at their bags pressed together in the corner. She grabs Maki’s phone and glances at the lock screen. “Maki, what is this star?” Umi walks over and holds up the phone to Maki. On her lock screen was a picture of a constellation, and one luminous star stands out to Umi.

“Ah, that’s Spica. And it’s two stars, not one.”

“Really?” Umi looks at the picture for any sign of separation, placing her face as if she’s trying to phase her head through the screen to get a closer look. “You sure love stars, don’t you, Maki?”

“W-well not particularly, but I do know a bit about them.” Umi smiles at Maki and places her hand on the redhead’s shoulder.

“You don’t have to lie to me, Maki,” Umi says.

“… Yeah, I don’t,” Maki says before smiling back. “Ahem, Spica is something called a binary star system, in which two stars orbit a common…” Umi watches Maki look up at the ceiling, and imagines her looking past it and at the night sky, despite the time. As Maki continues explaining, she smiles at her imaginary projection of stars, and Umi watches.

“H-hey,” Umi breathes when Maki’s lecture ends. Maki looks away from the ceiling and back at Umi. “Is it visible in the sky this month?”

“Yes. Until summer.”

“Do you want to see it tonight? W-with me?” Umi asks while she turns away, closing her eyes in anxious waiting.

“Sure,” Maki says, smiling like she’s looking at those invisible stars again, except this time it’s directed at Umi. And when Umi opens up her eyes again, Maki is back to going over music sheets. Umi watches her girlfriend for a bit then goes back to her endeavors on her page, trying to hide her beaming expression by burying her face in her notebook.

* * *

“This is the place?” Umi asks as they walk between trees bunched up like desks in a classroom. She looks up and sees a blanket of dark leaves that makes it look like there are no stars in the sky. The only sounds Umi hears are the chirping of crickets and the rustling of leaves in the wind. She looks back, and sees the lights from the car where Maki’s mother is sitting, the beams partially blocked by trunks of trees.

“Yep. It’s a secret spot Papa showed me when I was a kid,” Maki says.

“Lead the way.” When Umi says that, Maki stops walking forward and stretches her hand towards Umi, palm facing upwards and fingers spread apart so that Umi can easily interlace their fingers. And after Umi does, Maki guides her forward. Umi can tell that she’s blushing, but she doesn’t turn away in embarrassment this time. The pair moves in silence through the forest.

Umi figures that this closeness with Maki is something that comes with dating her. Sure, they _might_ do this if they were friends, but how comfortable she feels with the gesture is in part due to their relationship now. She smiles as she adds another answer to her question.

Umi finds it harder and harder to see what’s in front of her as time goes on; the forest seems to get denser as they move forward. They haven’t been walking for too long, but Umi looks back over and over to get a sense of how far they are from the car. She can’t see any traces of light.

“We’re not too far, are we?” Umi asks.

“Look there,” Maki whispers to Umi, her breath warming up Umi’s cheek. Umi turns forward and can see light emerging between the tree trunks. When they walk towards it, Umi sees an area with no trees. The moonlit grass is green, contrasting with the darkness below their feet. When the pair emerges out of the forest, they come across a giant field of lush greenery.

“Wow…” Umi looks up, and the stars shine brighter than they ever had back home. “It’s beautiful, Maki,” she says.

“It is, isn’t it?” Umi can feel Maki behind her, rummaging through the backpack they brought for the trip. Maki pulls out a blanket, and they both lay down on it and look at the stars above. “Right there is the Big Dipper… Then if you trace the handle you can find Arcturus, and if you keep going in the same direction… There’s Spica.”

Umi follows Maki’s steps, and her eyes land on a bright star in the sky. She can’t tell if it is the star from the picture, but trusts that Maki isn’t lying to her.

“It’s pretty,” Umi says.

“Yeah it is.” They are silent for a while, both of them content with stargazing and lying next to each other. “I’m surprised you wanted to do this with me.”

“Why?” Umi asks.

“I didn’t think you were interested in the stars,” Maki says.

“W-well I’m not that interested but I know you are and I wanted to go on a date with you because we’re dating and not much has changed… Ah.” Umi covers her mouth and rolls so that her back is facing Maki. “I just… Was thinking about what was so special about dating.”

“So the answer you came up with was dates?”

“Yes. That and how close we are now.” Umi turns to face Maki as she answers and finds that Maki is staring back at her. “What do you think?”

“Exclusivity,” Maki says.

“What?” Maki scoots towards Umi so that their noses graze against each other.

“It means I’m looking at you and only you.” Umi, now understanding what Maki means, leans in closer and kisses Maki on the cheek.

“And I’m only looking at you.” They stare at each other for a while, then look back up at the stars scattered in the sky. Umi finds Spica again by using the method Maki taught her. “Why don’t they crash into each other?”

“Spica?” Maki asks. She slides closer to Umi and leans against her. “They might collide eventually, or they might separate. It depends on a lot of things.”

“They can’t stay together?”

“I mean, it’s highly unlikely that their configuration would allow for that. And even if it did, the smallest outside influence would change it,” Maki states.

“But isn’t it pretty to think about?” Umi asks.

“What is?”

“Two stars dancing together for eternity, not caring about the universe around them.” Umi’s eyes meet Maki’s as she turns. “Only looking at each other.”

“You’re amazing with words, Umi.”

“Sometimes they’re not what I need,” Umi says before standing up. Umi extends her hand towards Maki and pulls her up after Maki accepts it.

They dance together, and Umi twirls Maki around once, twice. Maki laughs as Umi tries to perform a dip with Maki in her arms, and the two of them fall over onto the blanket.

“You need practice,” Maki says. They giggle together on the blanket and look at each other, the corners of their eyes wrinkling as they smile. Then those smiles fade and turn into serious expressions, and their lips crash together underneath the starlit sky.


End file.
